Life at The Burrow was as different as different as possible from life in Privet Drive. The Dursleys liked everything neat and ordered; the Weasleys' house bursted with the strange and expected.

Harry got shocked the first time he looked into a mirror over the kitchen mantlepiece and it shouted, 'Tuck your shirt in, scruffy!' The ghoul in the attic howled and dropped pipes whenever he felt things were getting to quiet, and small explosions from Fred and George's bedroom were considered perfectly normal.

What Harry found most unusual about life at Ron's, however, wasn't the talking mirror or the clanking ghoul: it was the fact that everybody there seemed to like him.

Mrs. Weasley fussed over the state of his socks and tried forcing him to eat fourth helpings at every meal. Mr. Weasley liked Harry to sit next to him at the dinner table so that he could bombard him with questions about life with Muggles, asking him to explain how things like plugs and the postal service worked.

"Fascinating!" He would say, as Harry talked him through using a telephone. "Ingenious, really, how many ways Muggles have found of getting along without magic."

Harry heard from Hogwarts one summer morning about a week after he had arrived at The Burrow. He and Ron went down to breakfast to find Mr and Mrs Weasley and Ginny already sitting at the kitchen table. The moment she saw Harry, Ginny accidentally knocked her porridge bowl to the floor with a loud clatter. Ginny seemed to be very prone to knocking things over whenever Harry entered a room. She dived under the table to retrieve the bowl and emerged with her face glowing like the setting sun. Pretending he hadn't notice this, Harry sat down and toke toast Mrs. Weasley offered him.

"Letters from school," Mr. Weasley said, passing Harry and Ron identical envelopes of yellowish parchment, addressed in green ink. Dumbledore already knows your here, Harry— doesn't miss a trick, that man. You two got them too," he added, as Fred and George ambled in, still in their pajamas.

For a few minutes there was silence as they all read their letters. Harry's told him to catch the Hogwarts Express as usual from King's Cross station on September the first. There was also a list of the new books he'd need for the coming year.

Second Year Students Will Require:
'The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2' by Miranda Goshawk
'Break with a Banshee' by Gilderoy Lockhart
'Gadding with Ghouls' by Gilderoy Lockhart
'Holiday with Hags' by Gilderoy Lockhart
'Travels with Trolls' by Gilderoy Lockhart
'Voyages with Vampires' by Gilderoy Lockhart
'Wandering with Werewolves' by Gilderoy Lockhart
'Year with the Yeti' by Gilderoy Lockhart

"Look Mum, got the Supply Card this year." Fred said enthusiastically, having finished reading his letter as he and George waved around bright silver tickets that glistened in view.

"Wonderful," Mrs. Weasley said as she gave the twins kisses on the cheeks, "I was worried of this years expenses with all those Lockhart Books. We'll already be getting some of Ginny's things second-hand."

"What's a Supply Card?" Harry asked, noticing that he nor Ron had received one in there Hogwarts letters.

"It's a special card that gets you free textbooks for the school year. It's given to those who passed there core classes with O's from the previous school year. Professor Black added it to the school for ten years now and has had it in place ever since. He says that people who work hard in their classes, shouldn't have to pay for there education. Quite ingenious really, spending his own money so the school board can't to anything against it," Fred explained.

"This is are first year getting them-" George began looking at Fred.

"We normally only get E's-" Fred said looking at George with an identical smirk.

"For Exceeding Expectation and arriving for the test." They said in unison before laughing.

It was about then when Percy, Ron's elder brother walked in, already dressed, his Hogwarts prefect badge pinned to his knitted tank top, just after Mr. Weasley was asking Harry, the function of a rubber duck.

"Morning, all" Percy said briskly, "Lovely day."

He sat down in the only remaining chair but leapt up again almost immediately, pulling from underneath him a molting, grey feather duster— at least, that's what Harry thought until he saw it breathing.

"Errol!," Ron said, taking the limp owl from Percy and extracting a letter from its wing, "Finally— he's got Hermione's answer. I wrote to her saying we were going to try and rescue you from the Dursleys."

Ron carried Errol to a perch just inside the  back door and tried to stand him on it, but Errol flopped straight off again so Ron laid him on the draining board instead, muttering "Pathetic."

He ripped open the letter and read it out loud:

Dear Ron, and Harry if you're there,

I hope everything went all right and that Harry is okay and that you didn't do anything illegal to get him out, Ron, because that would get Harry into trouble, too. I've been really worried and if Harry is all right, will you please let me know at once, but perhaps it will be better if you used a different owl, because I think another delivery might finish your one off.

I'm very busy with school work, of course— "How can she be?" Ron said in horror, "We're on holiday!"— and we're going to London next Wednesday to buy my books. Why don't we meet in Diagon Alley?

Let me know what's happening as soon as you can, live from Hermione.

"Well, that fits in nicely, we can go and get all your things then, too," Mrs. Weasley said, starting to clear the table, "What are you all up to today?"

"George and I are going to Professor Black's shop for a bit," Fred said looking at George with a mischievous look in his eyes.

"He just finished some new potions over the summer." George said giving Fred the same

"Professor Black has a shop?" Harry questioned, looking at Fred and George. Harry never heard of Professor Black owning a shop, but then again he never asked.

"Oh yeah. The Silver Bottle—"

"Largest Potions Company in the World—"

"Professor Black started it when he was just twenty in France—"

"Expanded throughout Europe like wildfire—"

"Each potion sold made by him—"

"He became the richest man in the world by 25—"

"And that's not counting investments and family wealth," The Weasley twins said in pure admiration.

"Then why is he working as a teacher! I get that he's being forced by Dumbledore and all but couldn't Dumbledore just ask for money instead?" Ron questioned.

"Can you really question the mind of Dumbledore?" George said, looking at Ron with a blank look.

"Fair point."

"Oh! Are you boys talking about Regulus Black?" Mr. Weasley asked, looking at his sons, "I heard that he donated doubled the funding for the Auror office again. The Wizengamot keeps trying to take away money from several departments and placing it into other programs."

"Really?" Percy Weasley said in excitement, "I've been reading up on it in the news lately. Did you know he is the leading investor in the Department of Magical Law Enforcements, Department of International Magical Cooperation, and the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophic? The Daily Prophet estimates that his donations makes up 40 percent of the Ministries funding and his business and investment makes up 25 percent of the British Economy and 5 percent World Wide." Percy continued on it impressed praise of even knowing someone like Professor Black.

But Harry was still confused, and had to ask himself the question the Ron asked before.

Just what could Dumbledore have on Professor Black to make him a teacher?

——
Mrs. Weasley woke them all early the following Wednesday. After a quick half a dozen bacon sandwiches each, they pulled on their coats and Mrs. Weasley took a flowerpot off the kitchen mantle and peered inside.

"We're running low, Arthur," she sighed, "We'll have to buy more today....ah well, guest first! After you, Harry dear!"

And she offered him the flowerpot. Harry started at them all watching him.

"W-what am I supposed to do?" He stammered.

"He's never travelled by Floo powder," Ron said suddenly in realization, "Sorry Harry, I forgot."

"Never?" asked Mr. Weasley, "But how did you get to Diagon Alley to buy your school things last year?"

"I went on the underground—"

"Really?" Mr. Weasley said eagerly, "Were there escapators? How exactly—"

"Not now, Arthur," Mrs. Weasley said, "Floo powder's a lot quicker, dear, but goodness me, if you've never used it before—"

" he'll be all right, Mum," Fred said, "Harry, watch us first."

He took a pinch of glittering powder out of the flowerpot, stepped up to the fire and threw the powder into the flame.

With a roar, the fire turned emerald green and Rose higher than Fred, who stepped right into it, shouted, "Diagon Alley!" and vanished.

You must be good very clearly, dear," Mrs. Weasley told Harry, as George dipped his hand into the flowerpot, " and mind you get out of the right grate..."

"The right what?" Harry said nervously, the fire roared and whipped George out of sight too.

" well there are an awful lot of wizard fires to chose from, you know, but as long as you've spoken clearly—"

"He'll be fine Molly, don't fuss," said Mr. Weasley helping himself to Floo powder too.

"But dear, if he got lost, how would we ever explain to his Aunt and Uncle ?"

"They won't mind," Harry said, reassuring her, "Dudley would think it was a brilliant joke if I got lost up a chimney, don't worry about that."

"Well... all right...you go after Arthur," Mrs. Weasley said, "Now, when you get into the fire, say where you're going—"

"And keep your elbows tucked in," Ron advised.

"And your eyes shut," Mrs. Weasley said, "The soot—"

"Don't fidget," Ron said, "Or you might well fall out of the wrong fireplace—"

"But don't panic and get out too early, wait until you see Fred and George."

Trying hard to bear this in mind, Harry took a pinch of Floo Powder and walked to the edge of the fire. He took a deep breath, scattered the powder into the flames and stepped forward; The fire felt like a warm breeze he opened his mouth and he immediately swallowed a lot of hot ash.

"D-Dia-gon Alley," he coughed.

It felt as though he was being sucked down a giant plug hole. He seem to be spinning very fast ... The roaring in his ears were deafening ... he tried to keep his eyes open but the world of green flames made him feel sick ... something hard knocked his elbow and he tucked it in tightly, still spinning and spinning ... now it felt as the cold hands were slapping his face ... squinting through his glasses he saw a blurred stream of fireplaces and snatched glimpses of the rooms beyond ... his bacon sandwiches were churning inside him ... he closed his eyes again wishing it would stop, and then— he fell, face forward, onto cold stone and felt his glasses shatter.

Dizzy and bruised, covered in soot, he got gingerly to his feet, holding his broken glasses up to his eyes. He was quite alone, where he was, he had no idea. All he could tell him was that he was standing in the stone fireplace of what looked like a large, dimly lit wizard's shop— but nothing in here was ever likely to be on a Hogwarts school list.

A glass case nearby held a withered hand on a cushion, blood-stained pack of cards and a staring glass eye. Evil-looking masks leered down from the walls, And assortment of human bones lay upon the counter and rusty spiked instrument hung from the ceiling. Even worse, the dark, narrow street Harry could see through the dusty shop window was definitely not Diagon Alley.

Bonus
•I know it might be weird that the Weasley talk about Regulus, but it's basically like talking about a famous person in your own home (except the fact that they know that celebrity)

•Regulus once had to deal with a smart student with a second hand potions book that was barley held together and was like 'that's it, time to help these students.' (That student was Bill Weasley but Bill doesn't know that is was because of him but Mama Weasley probably has some clue)

•During his time in France, Regulus grew so board that he ended up creating ten potions a week.

•He opened his first shop in France which did extremely well (which was probably the reason Dumbledore found him even though he used like a lot of disguise spells)

•So when he was forced to work at Hogwarts and was like "Fine, since I'm going to be here, might as well make another shop" and it just spread from there.

•Before he knew it, he was the richest man in the world and you know how people attitude change when they have money; Nope, that did not happen to Regulus, he honestly didn't know what to do with the money so he just invest on over people which ended up making him MORE rich

•So he just started to do charities and donations to make up for everything his family has done BUT it ended up making his public image better and so people bought more from his stores and investments SO IT IS A CONSTANT STRUGGLE OF HIM BEING RICH AND POWERFUL EVEN THOUGH HE DIDN'T PLAN FOR THAT TO HAPPEN

•NOTICE, money is constantly being taken out of the departments, but never did say where they are being placed *cough* corruption *cough*